Sustainability

The Business Intelligence Group today named Novelis and Discovery Education’s Life of a Can initiative Sustainability Service of the Year in the 2018 Sustainability Awards program. The Sustainability Awards honor people, teams and organizations who have made sustainability an integral part of their business practice or overall mission.

Republic Services and NJR Clean Energy Ventures (CEV), the clean energy subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, today celebrated the completion of a 13 megawatt (MW) ground-mounted commercial solar project constructed on the former South Brunswick Landfill Superfund site. Comprised of more than 36,000 solar panels, the project will provide enough clean energy to power 1,360 homes annually. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon calculator, it will also reduce emissions by approximately 14,000 tons, equivalent to removing 2,700 cars from the road each year.

Water is on executives’ minds these days. More and more, business people realize that water scarcity is the new normal, and if they want to put their companies in a position to keep growing, they have to adapt. I can confirm that much after living out of suitcases for most of the month of June and, at conference after conference, meeting numerous business leaders who expressed their sense of urgency about the topic.

Today’s question for corporate CEO’s: Have you examined your company’s “Total Impact Valuation,” a new approach being advanced by The Conference Board, wherein the enterprises’ impact on society is monetized (cost/benefit evaluated and value attached)?

A small group of companies is doing these exercises. Think of their efforts to date as expanding the usual reporting of “Input/Output” to seriously consider (1) Outcomes, (2) Impacts, (3) Cost and Benefit to Society (and to the company).

This appears to us to have the potential to take corporate sustainability reporting to expanded (new) levels for at least the publicly-traded large caps - that is, if enough investors jump aboard the concept and ask for the information.

Drive Sustainability and the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) today announced the release of a new study examining responsible sourcing of materials in the automotive and electronics industries. The report, Material Change, was commissioned by Drive Sustainability and the Responsible Minerals Initiative and completed by The Dragonfly Initiative (TDI).

As unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) – commonly known as drones – become more vital for commercial use, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is weighing whether to free up more national airspace for them by relaxing restraints on their operation. Such airspace rules changes could allow beyond-line-of-sight use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and Black & Veatch is part of the team helping test the safety of that.

UN Sustainable Development Goals give companies and investors a unique chance to create a better world. In this video, prominent members from the investor world explain why the SDGs matter when it comes to making better investment decisions.

The PRI and sustainability nonprofit organization Ceres today announced that their collaborative effort to address tropical deforestation, the Investor Initiative for Sustainable Forests, has expanded to include engagement with companies exposed to deforestation risks linked to soy production in South America.

The Initiative will support and coordinate investor’s engagement with companies to eliminate deforestation from their soybean supply chains within South America.

Two major Duke Energy solar energy programs are rolling out this month in North Carolina, making solar more abundant and affordable for customers.

When it comes to water management, Ford Motor Company continually strives to go further. The company has reduced water use by more than 10 billion gallons since 2000 and is aiming for an additional 30 percent reduction per vehicle from 2015 to 2020. Its long-term ambition: zero freshwater use in manufacturing.